If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Culture also affects communication by influencing the recipients' assumptions. Our minds try to twist incoming information to make it fit in our worldview. Since different cultures have very different worldviews, cross-cultural communication is especially likely to change meaning between sender and receiver, as the sender may have a very different worldview from the receiver.

Culture also affects communication by influencing the recipients' assumptions. Our minds try to twist incoming information to make it fit in our worldview. Since different cultures have very different worldviews, cross-cultural communication is especially likely to change meaning between sender and receiver, as the sender may have a very different worldview from the receiver.

Thank you Outcast for searching out and posting the news items re Mariam. Your dedication makes it easier for us to follow along without having to search out the news items.

I am totally fresh out of any ideas on what happened to Mariam but am so hoping that she is found.

Very well said. Me too.

My first gut feeling was that she was abducted by someone who she either knew or stranger ( I know that it is rare but it still happens ). Now I am open to all different kind of scenarios: from family being involved to her being able to just leaving by her own will. ( again unlikely, but what do we know?)

In regards with the police work: why do you think they spend so much time searching the garbage site?

Culture also affects communication by influencing the recipients' assumptions. Our minds try to twist incoming information to make it fit in our worldview. Since different cultures have very different worldviews, cross-cultural communication is especially likely to change meaning between sender and receiver, as the sender may have a very different worldview from the receiver.

Relative in Georgian Parliament ?

Culture also affects communication by influencing the recipients' assumptions. Our minds try to twist incoming information to make it fit in our worldview. Since different cultures have very different worldviews, cross-cultural communication is especially likely to change meaning between sender and receiver, as the sender may have a very different worldview from the receiver.

Could be. I don't know how common the last name is, but there are 8 on Facebook, not counting Vakhtang and George. None of the 8 is on either Vakhtang or George's friend list, so I'm guessing they're not related.

Men are apt to mistake the strength of their feeling for the strength of their argument. - William E. Gladstone

What LE is doing makes sense; Miriam wasn't in Canada very long at all, if she was abducted whoever took her had to have:
A. Lived near her and was stalking her
B. Seen her in or around the school or area walking to it, or libraries, or the boat race

She wasn't that many places, being she just moved there.

"But Mariam had few contacts outside her family's apartment, near Bathurst St. and Eglinton Ave. W., around the corner from the school. Even family and friends in Georgia could offer little insight, saying she was an introvert who was excited about moving to Canada."http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/arti...st-won-t-crack

I honestly think someone was stalking her and the day she split from her brother to use a seperate entrance they took advantage of the oppurtunity to strike.
If she was stalked, the stalker would know her habits, probably have an idea of her personality, possibly even background, etc depending on how far they went.

Whoever took her would have to be familiar with the area, to know how to get away from the public view with her and not be seen or get caught. Maybe they lured her somehow, i know she speaks very little English, however there might have been ways someone could have lured her to "help" them and then got her into their car.

In order to know Miriam existed to begin with, they'd have to have seen her somewhere which would be around her home, school, libraries, or the boat race.

The police set up a command post outside Miriam's apartment building, right?

Is there a way into the sewer systems from above on the streets around there?

My first gut feeling was that she was abducted by someone who she either knew or stranger ( I know that it is rare but it still happens ). Now I am open to all different kind of scenarios: from family being involved to her being able to just leaving by her own will. ( again unlikely, but what do we know?)

In regards with the police work: why do you think they spend so much time searching the garbage site?

What if it was an acquantaince like for example, someone who lived near her who may have smiled at her on her way to school, always acted friendly towards her and her brother?
If they stalked her without her realizing it, all the while keeping a friendly demeanor if she did see the perp, then possibly it may have been easier for the perp to "lure" her to him when she took a seperate entrance into the school that day..

Well, since you guys are looking for fresh ideas... I'll try. Maybe like Meow333 said it was someone who she slightly knew as a neighbor or someone her parents had introduced her to that they knew before she and her brother arrived. All it would take is some scam in Russian or her native tongue and she's gone... and on the streets prostituting and really unable to make herself clearly understood. I have always wished she had just taken off to begin with, but now somehow I think she might have gotten taken by traffickers. The person who took Miriam is either really lucky or has done this type of thing before. I have been reading this since she went missing and what has bothered me is that fact that she doesn't speak engish very well. She would be a perfect target for human traffickers.

The following is snipped from http://canadafightshumantrafficking.com/
Victims ranging from ages 4 and up, are raped anywhere from 10-40 times a day. Humans are the second most trafficked "product" in the black market. According to the RCMP, 800 to 1200 people are trafficked in and through Canada every year, however some activists would peg the number as high as 15,000. The impact of trafficking on Canada is estimated at between $120 million to $400 million per year and accounts for approximately 8,000 to 16,000 people arriving in Canada per year illegally. ("Organized Crime Impact Study," Solicitor General of Canada) In Canada a girl can be sold for $15,000 and earn her owner over $40,000 a year

I do not agree with what you have to say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it.

Since there is no news today....

Of all the reasons people are reported missing, most is known about missing children or missing young people. For example according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children:

.................................................. .....................
•Girls 13-17 are twice as likely to run away then boys of the same age
•Missing runaways have a 44% chance of being hurt or injured while they are on the run and 67% of being sexually assaulted or hurt, sometimes even murdered by a stranger they just met or are staying with.
•In the majority of cases, the main reason that a child or young adults runs away is because of a conflict with authority, parental rules, or a fear of discipline for a bad decision they made. Very few children that run away are victims of abuse, since most are afraid of their abusers.
• 79% of abducted children are abducted by someone they know such as an estranged parent who kidnaps the child. It is very rare for a child to be abducted and murdered by a stranger.
•Of course, children that are abducted by strangers are mostly kidnapped by registered or non-registered sex offenders. (2)

During this time of turmoil for your family it is important to focus on a family gathering and meeting. Understanding all you can about the recent demeanor of the missing can preface the investigation into the right forward steps to determining a theory and potentially locating the family member. Rather than running mindlessly in erratic directions and calling all the wrong people I want to help you focus on the proper direction of the investigation.Profiling the missing person first provides law enforcement and your family much needed guidance. When a family member goes missing the entire family should draw together for a meeting. The IMMEDIATE meeting should involve open conversations about any recent communication each family member may have had with the missing family member. This important IMMEDIATE meeting could take place over the phone or in a family setting in person. You may access a number of free conference call websites (www.freeconferencecall.com) that could be setup where the entire family could access and connect by web or telephone.

Culture also affects communication by influencing the recipients' assumptions. Our minds try to twist incoming information to make it fit in our worldview. Since different cultures have very different worldviews, cross-cultural communication is especially likely to change meaning between sender and receiver, as the sender may have a very different worldview from the receiver.

Culture also affects communication by influencing the recipients' assumptions. Our minds try to twist incoming information to make it fit in our worldview. Since different cultures have very different worldviews, cross-cultural communication is especially likely to change meaning between sender and receiver, as the sender may have a very different worldview from the receiver.

Shallmar Blvd and vicinity at around 11 am today

It appears that there are less people on the street since the police finished door to door canvass on Shallmar. I spotted two female detectives on Eglinton, walking westbound, crossing on Mayfair intersection. I know that they were detectives, because of they way they were dressed (you do not see many formally dressed people during the day in this area).

There is no media in the area. Central Field Command is still anchored, little bit down the street from front of 20 Shallmar. The area looks and feels very quiet. Only noise comes from leaves’ collecting that is happening on Vesta Drive.

I guess the question I have is the one on everyone else's minds: where is Mariam and what happened to her?

Culture also affects communication by influencing the recipients' assumptions. Our minds try to twist incoming information to make it fit in our worldview. Since different cultures have very different worldviews, cross-cultural communication is especially likely to change meaning between sender and receiver, as the sender may have a very different worldview from the receiver.

It would not explain why she hasn't contacted her parents for two months or how she's been able to survive this whole time with no money, poor English skills, and very little familiarity with Toronto.

ETA: Also, if she wanted her independence, all she had to do was wait another month and she would have turned 18. She would have then been legally emancipated and free to take off without all this drama. QUOTE antiquegirl

Who needs English when you have Russian speakers and they probably have more money than the average person?
As for the question of why be so dramatic, we had a teenager creating deadly drama over an X-Box. Young people are dramatic. She wouldn't be thinking of legalities.